


Genus Igne Consumptis

by littleberd



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gladiators, Alternate Universe - Norse Religion & Lore, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Greek and Roman Mythology - Freeform, Humanoid dragons later on, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Prophecy, Slavery, everything terrible about that time period will appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2018-11-12 09:54:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11159472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleberd/pseuds/littleberd
Summary: Berk was a really frigid, and harsh little Island. But considering all the problems, whether it be the weather or how frequently the sun wouldn't show up, the biggest problem with it would undoubtedly be the pests. The Island of Berk had a regular problem with dragons. But now. There is no Berk. All the Dragons have been captured by an army of soldiers calling themselves Romans. The people of Berk should be singing the great companies of soldiers praises... instead they are seething and cursing from within cells on the giant boats, right alongside the pests they detested so much. In the coming times, a young boy, the skinny talking fish-bone son of the chief of Berk, and the NightFury, most feared of beasts, most awesome and deadly of dragons will have to work together to find a way out of the arena they're kin and kith will be fighting to the death in. But some surprises are in store for them all, when a prophecy long forgotten is revealed. And these two maybe far more connected than anyone could have known.





	1. paved with good intentions

Hiccup has had quite a few kerfuffles in the past, honest mistakes with only good intentions. But the one time he manages to do something right. He also somehow has managed to create the biggest mess he's ever gotten the Hooligan clan into before.

Exhibit A.

Every pair of open Berk eyes were glaring death at him. 

Exhibit B.

The only thing between him and death by strangulation, gutting, or being crushed by a pair of beefy arms are the metal bars separating families and friends into single cells. 

Exhibit C.

A pair of acidic green eyes in the cell directly to his right were also glaring at him. Now those, those bothered him because the only things between him being roasted into ashes are a slew of leather belts around the creature's mouth, straps and chains bolting it down, and a few sparse bars of what appears to be green tinged copper _just in case_. That's not to say that a NightFury was the only dragon in a cage below deck either, there were several other dragons walking the perimeter of their cages. Go figure the deadliest dragon known to Viking kind was the only reptile staring at him with a predator's eyes.

Hiccup curls into a tighter ball than he's already in. Hiding the tears streaming down his cheeks and over brown freckles like water over a riverbed of pebbles. Hiccup doesn't want to remember what he's done but the memories come unbidden.

_He'd finally done it! The NightFury was downed by his invention! After so many failed attempts and scorned looks he's finally done it!_

_Hiccup yips and bellows in excitement, "Did anyone SEE THAT?!?"_

_Hiccup turns around just in time to see a Nightmare creeping up the cliff side, a foot away from being flambe-d._

_"Except for you.." of course he couldn't help but mutter his thoughts aloud before he ran away like a scared little girl because there was a giant flame covered killing machine with wings and teeth and claws tearing after him, the very image of a bat sent by Hell._

_And things only got better from there because the only place he could hope of evading the death on wings storming behind him was to run to a Viking with a weapon who happened to be brave enough to face a rampaging Nightmare... Only one person came to mind and he was already battling other dragons in the village._

_A blast of hot air that singed the hair off of his left arm was enough incentive to go and find his soon to be savior anyway. But not before he stupidly tried to hide behind a decorated pole that had managed to survive the constant Dragon raids since the first time his ancestors had claimed this island as home sweet home. It goes without saying it was destroyed via fireball meant for himself, which led to it being rolled down the slope of the town once it fell, spreading the flames and fanning them higher. The watch tower was a wreck. The few buildings standing were at the top of the hill the village resided on and were already burned to their skeletal structures._

_Stoic the Vast turned heavy, angered, and disappointed eyes on his son who he had saved from certain death yet again. Something he was use to doing but wished he didn't have to, because saving his son had cost the entire village dearly, AGAIN. A couple of dragons he had wrangled under a net had gotten free, set free the rest of the captured dragons, and stolen a good 2 thirds of their livestock on top of the already striking structural damages._

_All was lost. And then hope arose. Strange foreign ships off in the distance were throwing nets that caught the beasts that had made off with the sheep. Once the fires around the docks were put out, not a minute later, foreign men in weird dresses and armor marched onto the Island of Berk._

_But the gratitude for Berk's saviors was soon turned into fear and confusion. A man on the ship posed at the bow and pointed his sword out at the happy gathered crowd. A few loud flowing words of a different talking tongue echoed around. At first the village thought it was reassurance and promises of protection, maybe even a little bit of demand for payment which they would have given gladly._

_Instead it was something far worse. The soldiers sprang into action, the dragon raid had already taken it's toll on the warriors of Berk, the smart few that realized this fled into the woods as those that fought were quickly slain and those caught were shackled. Hiccup being one of the ones that ran. But he had a mission, it was admittedly really stupid, and crazy, and he wasn't in his right mind as it was being hunted down by trained soldiers but it was something that he needed to do. The only advantage he had was they were chasing him in his area of expertise._

_Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is a teenager that's constantly getting into trouble and suffering the ire of, essentially, every viking in Berk in some way or another. Few had been as gracious as Gothi, or as understanding and fond as Gobber. So to avoid accidents-cough*murderous mobs*cough* Hiccup took to exploring the Island of Berk. No one knew it better than he, but there was also the slight difference of the quality of light. Granted he knew his way around in the sun, but under the moon the forest changed drastically. He did, however, manage to find the landmarks he was searching for more out of habit than actual need, because what he really needed to do was lose the soldiers clobbering behind him with the guiding light of a few torches, and get to a certain something he made drop out of the sky like a sinking bag of rocks._

_In the spur of a moment decision he jumped across the not very wide beginning crack of a ravine and heard the squawks and cries of indignation. Hiccup would've chuckled if he hadn't been running for his life, cresting a hill and almost tripping over a split tree trunk._

_His eyes turned downward and his booted feet felt a kind of trench, an immense dip in the ground... Almost like the furrows a wooden cart tire makes in the mud-_

_Hiccup follows it with a determined sort of grimace. The hiss ahead of him just confirms his hypothesis. A deep purple blue glow of nostrils, and the burning green eyes on the mass of inky black desperately wiggling dragon are all he needs to see in the night to know that this is the dragon of legend._

_"The NightFury..."_

_Glowing orbs widen, the irises the pearly insides of an oyster, the pupils narrowing to pin prick slits in it's irises and focusing it's smoldering gaze on none other than the scrawny viking that shot it down._

_Gulping down his fear he steps forward and takes out his knife._ They were capturing dragons... I can't let them take this one. Who knows what those people are planning to use them for. _Hiccup lifts his knife and the dragon stills in it's frantic struggling, giving a keening trill before locking their gazes and then looking away._

 _It's eyes startle him._ It's scared. It's just as afraid of me... As I am of it right now...

 _Hiccup is stuck, unable to move, knife held aloft in the air but jittering from his clenching and unclenching grip._ It's what you've always wanted Hiccup, being a dragon killer has always been your dream. Why do you hesitate? Why are your hands shaking so hard your knife is about to tremble and fall from your grasp?

_He hears shouts not as far off as he would like and then his body is moving without his consent._

_The sound of his knife sawing through the thick rope bindings of the bolas constricting the NightFury is loud in his ears and makes droplets of nervous sweat trail down his cheekbones, aggravating his face with the itch of it drying on his skin._

_A few snaps of sliced rope later, Hiccup is pushed down with a heavy razor-sharp taloned claw, immense enough to cover and press down painfully on his entire chest. Hiccup wheezes as he stares into those glowing orbs._ So I'm the first Viking to catch a NightFury, invite hostile invaders to Berk, and release a NightFury... And now I'm going to die staring into the face of this deadly reptile... And nobody's going to even know that I caught one if it kills those soldiers chasing me too...The Gods hate me.

 _It opens it's mouth, and the telltale blue-ish purple light blinds Hiccup with it's stark light in the darkness of the forest._ May the Valkyrie take me to Valhalla and may I rejoin my Mother in those hallowed halls.

_But then it stops, and roars so loud in his face he can feel the stench of fish dissolving saliva spray his face and shock his eardrums. It jumps off of Hiccup and runs away._

_Only for it to be netted by the soldiers that had followed him. Hiccup runs after the NightFury and attempts to tackle the soldier closest to the net. He surprisingly lands a kick in one's face, he catches a glimpse of blood streaking from a broken nose in the flickering torchlight. But even when he grabs onto the net and hauls it off with what strength he has left in his tired body the soldiers swarm and overtake him easily._

_They eventually grabbed him and wrangled him onto his knees with bruising force and growling curses in a harsh foreign tongue. Blood dribbled from a knick above Hiccup's right eyebrow as he looked across a few yards at the NightFury that had been captured a second time in one night. It's green eyes peering into the depths of his soul and a mighty roar, are the only things that managed to stick with Hiccup before the soldiers hit him on the back of the head with a heavy hilt of a sword._

And this is where he awoke. In a cage. On a ship. Surrounded by angry viking villagers and angry dragons in cages just like his own. And a NightFury eyeing him up like a fish ready for roasting over an open flame.


	2. Shunning and Kindness

Hiccup wakes up to the disturbing back and forth of the sea. An overzealous mother mistaking the boat for a craddle making the poor souls in the bottom stagger and attempt to stay upright on the madly humid, stinking, feces and piss splattered floor.

By now Hiccup had suffered through 3 weeks of this stench, 2 weeks of the snoring of these beasts. And he wasn't talking about the dragons either because he now understood why Gothi lived on the outskirts of the village even though she holds the title of village elder and medicine woman. And one week of alternating never ending death rants and instant shunning. Plus the loogies snotlout never stopped aiming at him through the cage bars. He was thankful towards either the constant rocking or his cousin's terrible aim because every single one missed its target.

Seasickness abated the hooligan clan after the first 3 life-scarring days. The dragons however...

Were not so lucky. 

Hiccup could tell that even his father, who was known to hate dragons more than he needed breath, was pitying the poor creatures. Thankfully their seasickness didn't have the same symptoms as humans or else the gronkles would've burnt a hole in the keel the first day. 

However, many wished death once the _dragons_ symptom flared. The unhealthy colored brutes had to have their cells cleaned daily or else the soldiers wouldn't be able to wade through the swamp of shit. Then again the fish they were fed looked weeks old and smelt like it too. And the human rations handed out could barely pass as water and bread from an _Optimistic_ point of view.

A loud low rumbling hiss and thwack of a wing against the bars barely makes Hiccup flinch now. 

Speaking of shitty living conditions...

If Hiccup thought _He_ had it bad his next door neighbor had it worse. Dragons apparently hazed and tormented those they hated too.

And the nightfury was getting anything but the cold shoulder from its companions. Hiccup counts himself lucky at having Snotlout spitting at him because the offspring of lighting and death itself had a dozen or so terrible terrors spitting fireballs at him... And those little blighters could aim.

Though it didn't appear to hurt him physically, he just sunk further to the floor and flicked its... Ears? In irritation. But it never stopped looking at him. It only blinked but a few times in the span of its captivity.

But Hiccup did discover the reason why it didn't fly away that night. He had noticed it when one of the gaggle of terrible terrors shot at its tail. The smell of seering flesh filled the air almost as quickly as the agonized and enraged roar. A part of its tail had been cut clean off, and the little reptile managed to hit it right on its open wound. It smartly hid it's tail under its wings after that. Even in its sleep, what little it gets, it still tucks it under the wing closest to Hiccup.

But one thing was for certain, and most everyone knew it one way or another. They were all packed into this boat of misery and Hiccup was at the very least partially to blame for it.

***************************

The ringing of a noisy bell and marching of the soldiers above wakens most everyone from their dozing if they had gotten any sleep at all.

The nameless guard that passes out food comes down the wooden stairs with a squadron of other soldiers. One of them broke their neat single file formation. His chest plate glimmering copper and his leather strap skirt shining from good quality as he spoke in perfect unbroken Norse, "Wake up Barbarians! Up and at 'em. We've reached the harbor. Women and children are first up for the market as well as Mercury's ilk."

Cages were opened one at a time, the soldiers pointing at their prisoners daring them to attempt a mutiny of any sort.

No squabbles broke out. Not until Gothi was proded.

"Get up you old hag! We've no time for your foolery. Get up or we will drag you out by your teeth!" She silently refused in much her stubborn way, in vain they tried to cajole her with their spears but still she sat cross-legged and unmoving as a mule evwn when a spear sliced her wrinkled cheek she did not flinch. Finally one of the soldiers grabbed her, throwing her out much to the dismayed cries of her villagers.

Instead of hitting the hard, disgusting, splintery floor she was caught by a tail. A long, black, injured tail that belonged to Hiccups ever watching neighbor.

All eyes watched, no one dared breath as the fearsome creature gently tilted its tail at a slope, softly sliding her down the small incline. Gothi landed on her feet with a huff but turned to look at the once bane of the viking village's existence. With all the calm and regal dignity of the village elder she is she patted the tail in thanks and began to walk toward the group of gathered women and children and chained terrible terrors woth her head held high. The soldiers finally took action at this as they began shepherding the collective up to the deck to the brightness of daylight.

Hiccup's eyes never left the beast as it watched the fellow captives leave. But when the last one climbed out of sight it locked eyes with Hiccup.

Hiccup made no move closer but stayed statue-like in their mutual stare-off. Two hoarse words tumbled clumsily from his unparalyzed lips.

"Thank you."

**Author's Note:**

> please comment, it's what keeps me writing!


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